Monday, February 21, 2011

Ambushing the Ambushed: Libyan security forces (some reports claim mercenaries) fired machine guns into mourners at a funeral for some of the 200 protesters killed by the same security forces earlier in the week. Thankfully Qaddafi isn't one of Uncle Sam's close friends – like Yemen's dictatorship, where protesters have also been killed, or the royal family in Bahrain, where continued demand for democracy – despite several deaths - may lead to financial problems for the US and others. The pro-democracy (or anti-despot, which isn't the same thing) movement has spread from Morocco to China, whereguards have been increased in key locations and political activists have disappeared. to prevent any bubbling protest movement.

Quelle surprise! Who were among Wisconsin Governor Walker's largest moneybags? (a) The Koch Brothers. (b) All of the above.

What Happened? Greenspan is still baffled about how the collapse collapsed. Bernanke didn't see it coming and doesn't see the next one coming, either. Commissions study, economists theorize, and everybody avoids mentioning that what you see is what you got when you let investment bankers take over the country.

Role Reversal: The United States, which helped Mubarak suppress freedom in Egypt for 30 years (in return got customized torture services), is now gushing accolades and promising support to those who deposed him. We knew we had no shame, but we never thought our leaders could be so transparently cynical.

Believe You Me: "There is no physical reason why a house should become more valuable at all... It just sits there. It becomes more valuable only because people believe that it will become more valuable."

A Lose/Lose Situation: Domestically, the Republicans have taken charge of the agenda and relegated Obama to the role of cheerleader, internationally the students in the street have made the State Department and White House spectators as the empire unravels. The Army is still a non-starter, being tied up in interminable warfare in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Let's Be Friends! The FBI says not enough people are friending them on Facebook and practically no one BCC's them on email, so out of frustration and a general sense of isolation they want to require providers of social-networking sites and peer-to-peer services to permit them real-time access to everybody's dirty laundry.

Timing Is Everything: Most who think civilization will collapse, think it won't happen until at least a a week or two after they do. Most of us simply want to believe there’s some chance that the next half century - or the next twenty years (depending on their age) - might not be quite as ghastly as they secretly fear it will be.

Disconnect: Glen Beck told his viewers that the protesters in Wisconsin were members of the Muslim Brotherhood, representatives of the UN, union members, NGO representatives and even Google people, all intent on creating a New World Order or something like that. Rush Limbaugh, more reasonably, limited himself to calling Wisconsin's teachers anti-democratic parasites.

Stop Me If You've Heard This One: It wasn't the greed of the banks and everyone else in the mortgage issuing, chopping, mixing, blending and shilling business that was in the least responsible for the Current Whatever. The Bernank has finally figured it out: It was “Foreign investors’ hunger for safe US assets...” Probably a bunch of those sneaky Frenchmen. It certainly wasn't the years and years of low Fed interest rates.

1 comment:

Anonymous
said...

If anyone had told me 1970 that in 2011 I would read an article on home insulation that begins with a discussion of the end of the world as we know it, I would have believed them. Hell, It was 1970. I was young, as well as stoned and gullible much of time. Aren't I supposed to have a flying car already?

I've noticed my laugh seems a tad high-pitched and maniacal lately, Jim, but that seems a reasonable response to the insanity at hand. I blame you for this. The end of the world, as I have known it, isn't supposed to be this entertaining. Thanks for that, Jim.

Our Motto

Keep fightin' for freedom and justice, beloveds, but don't you forget to have fun doin' it. Lord, let your laughter ring forth. Be outrageous, ridicule the fraidy-cats, rejoice in all the oddities that freedom can produce. And when you get through kickin' ass and celebratin' the sheer joy of a good fight, be sure to tell those who come after how much fun it was.